Abstract
The October 2005 local elections and January 2006 presidential election were both marked by defeats for the Socialist Party, which mere months earlier had obtained its first parliamentary majority since democratization. While in both instances the defeats cannot be dissociated from poor strategic choices by the Socialists, they also suggest a shortening of the political cycle in Portugal, with remarkably short honeymoon periods for national governments. At the same time, the victory of a centre-right candidate in the presidential election ended the centre-left's monopoly on the presidency since democratization. As such, it completes the alternation between the main parties in the political system of democratic Portugal.
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